This keynote panel on "Fulfilling the Promise" — part of the 24th annual Barbara Jordan National Forum — provokes a conversation about how we can create an America that lives up to its promise of the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness to everyone regardless of race, status or religion. Leading the conversation are Rodney Ellis (MPAff '77), Harris County Commissioner; Ranjana Natarajan, director of the Civil Rights Clinic at the University of Texas School of Law; and Mercedes Fulbright, organizing director of the Texas Working Families Party.
Speakers
Commissioner Rodney Ellis
Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis was born and raised in Houston's Sunnyside neighborhood. The proud son of a yardman and a maid, Ellis attended Texas public schools from grade school through law school. He holds a bachelor's degree from Texas Southern University, a master's degree from the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs and a law degree from The University of Texas School of Law.
Ellis has played a critical role on the court by securing misdemeanor bail reform, flood equity guidelines, stronger worker protections and economic opportunity provisions, funding for indigent defense and COVID-19 recovery funding, including direct relief for residents, small businesses, emergency rental assistance, shelters for those experiencing homelessness, as well as other innovative programs, including providing computers to low-income students, among other achievements.
Before serving as a county commissioner, Ellis was elected to Houston City Council and served three terms before being elected to the Texas Senate in 1990. For 26 years, he represented Texas's 13th State Senate District and passed over 700 pieces of legislation. Ellis was elected county commissioner on Nov. 8, 2016 and sworn into office on Jan. 1, 2017.
Ranjana Natarajan
Ranjana Natarajan has directed the Civil Rights Clinic at the University of Texas School of Law since 2013. Students who work with the clinic represent low-income clients in a variety of civil rights matters including police misconduct, jail mistreatment, debtors prisons and disability discrimination. From 2009 to 2013, Natarajan directed the law school's National Security Clinic, in which law students worked on cases and projects relating to national security, terrorism and constitutional and human rights.
Prior to clinical teaching, she worked as an attorney with the ACLU of Southern California, where she litigated and advocated on a variety of civil rights and civil liberties issues, including immigration detention, civil rights post 9/11, gender equity and prisoners' rights. She also held a clinical fellowship with the Immigrant Rights Clinic at New York University School of Law, where she litigated minimum wage and overtime cases in federal court, and immigration cases in administrative court, and engaged in worker rights advocacy. She began her career as an attorney and Kirkland and Ellis Fellow with South Brooklyn Legal Services, representing low-income clients in cases involving housing and disability rights in state and federal courts.
Follow her on Twitter: @nranjana.
Mercedes Fullbright
An experienced and respected voice on political strategy, racial justice advocacy, effective progressive leadership training, grassroots organizing and public policy, Mercedes Fulbright led the way in building a sustainable coalition of organizations to coordinate under the national Movement for Black Lives during the 2020 summer uprisings. She currently leads the Texas Working Families Party as organizing director with a mission to build a mass multiracial, anti-racist movement of regular people coming together despite their differences to make a better future for all Texans. She has played key roles in the leadership of the BYP100 (Black Youth Project), the Movement for Black Lives and Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas.
Follow her on Twitter: @saintcedes and @txwfp.